The present invention relates to a cigarette handling apparatus.
As is known, cigaretts coming for example from a cutting device of a cigarette stranding machine are initially conveyed forward in the direction of their axes and then must be subsequently conveyed transversely to their axes as a single-rowed or double-rowed transverse axial stream.
Apparatus are known for the depositing of cigarettes, in which the cigarettes are accelerated in their axial direction by one or more segment wheels, and individually conveyed into grooves of a deposit drum, where they are braked and positioned by abutments.
With the presently customary high production speeds, however, the cigarette ends may however become damaged by, and/or may bounce back from the abutments, and their positioning thereby becomes inaccurate. Apparatus have therefore been developed, in which the cigarettes, after entry into the grooves of the deposit drum, are braked by friction, for example, by sucking them against the groove base. Such an apparatus is described in DT-OS No. 17 61 788. A problem with this apparatus is that the friction is not exactly constant and also the underpressure is not exactly controllable, such that a cigarette can, in spite of the braking effect, still bounce against and be the abutment, and can also bounce back, while another cigarette comes to a standstill before the abutment. Additional apparatus must thus be used to bring the cigarettes into the correct position after the braking and to hold them in position. This appreciably increases the driving effort required, and there is still the danger of the cigarette ends becoming damaged.
Since these apparatus are unsatisfactory, other apparatus have been developed which grip the cigarettes individually or in pairs by mechanical means with the aid of suction, and then convey them on circular, elliptical or cycloidal paths and transfer them to a drum. Such apparatus are described for example in DT-PS No. 23 37 945, DT-OS No. 19 52 508 and DL-PS No. 116 748. These apparatus are, however, mechanically very complex, require maintenance and are expensive. Also, the tolerances brought about by natural wear of a large number of joints and bearing locations in such apparatus result in a rapid loss of accurate operation of the apparatus.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which has the advantage of the gripper mechanisms, namely their positioning accuracy, but in which the mentioned disadvantages, namely the longitudinal axial loading of the cigarettes on the one hand, or the constructional complications on the other hand, are avoided.